


A Mother's Love

by gray_autumn_sky



Series: Second Chances [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 15:27:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7624033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gray_autumn_sky/pseuds/gray_autumn_sky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Hope asks Regina if she’s her ‘real mom,’ Regina explains what it means to be a mother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Mother's Love

Regina lifts her daughter into her lap, smiling as Hope’s small fingers curl around a string of pearls as they sit together at Regina’s dressing table. It’s early morning and the little girl’s hair is messy and she still wears her pink plaid pajamas. Hope stares into the mirror, watching, almost transfixed, as Regina dabs a makeup brush into her blush and swipes the brush over her cheeks.

Noticing Hope’s gaze, Regina swipes the brush across her nose. “Mommy, that tickles!” she exclaims, as she dissolves into a fit of giggles.

Regina can’t help the smile that stretches across her lips. Raising a daughter is so different than raising sons—not better or worse, just different. It presents a different set of experiences and a unique dynamic and bond, and she cherishes it. Hope has filled their lives with certain softness and light that wasn’t there before, and she’s filled a place in her heart that she’d never known was empty.

“Does it? Does it tickle? How about this?” Regina asks in an almost sing-song voice as she squeezes Hope closer and tickles her sides. “Does this tickle?”

Hope’s laughter rings out as Regina’s fingertips press gently into her sides and move rapidly, “Mom-my!”

The little girl’s laughter is contagious and when Robin enters, he can’t help but laugh. Hope is hanging off Regina’s lap, her strawberry blonde locks falling over the side of Regina’s arm as she squirms and laughs from her spot on her mother’s lap. Finally, Regina stops and pulls her back up, wrapping her arms around her as she kisses the top of her messy hair. Hope is panting for air, her cheeks are flushed and her smile is bright.

“Breakfast is ready,” Robin informs them, his eyes catching Regina’s though the mirror. “And if the two of you don’t hurry, there are two hungry boys downstairs who would be more than happy to eat your share.”

Regina grins and nods, and then turns her attention back to Hope. She’s surprised to see that the little girl’s face has turned serious and pensive as she stares at her mother’s reflection.

And then it happens.

“Mommy, why don’t I look like you?” She turns her head and looks at Regina with expectant eyes, but suddenly, Regina can’t find her voice. “Are you my real mom?”

Regina freezes.

The question is unexpected. They’ve never hidden that she has another mother; and though Zelena’s role in the girl’s life has been a limited one, she’s never been a secret… but she’s never been explained, either. At five years old, Hope is far too young to understand the complicated circumstances that led to her existence and adoption.

Robin steps in, scooping Hope up into her his arms. “I wasn’t kidding,” he tells her. “There is a chocolate chip pancake waiting for you downstairs. Henry is drooling over it and I had to slap Roland’s hands to keep him from taking it. You’d better hurry.”

Hope smiles, but she looks back at Regina and her eyes are filled with concern. “Mommy, did I hurt your feelings? You look sad.”

“Oh, sweetheart. You didn’t hurt my feelings,” Regina says as she pulls herself up. She holds out her hands, and Hope leans toward her as Robin transfers the child into her arms and she settles her legs around her mother’s waist so that the two of them are face-to-face. Regina hugs her tightly, rubbing her nose against Hope’s and looking into her crystal blue eyes. “And you could never make me sad.” Regina drops a kiss on her forehead and gives her a tight squeeze, then sets her down. “Go join your brothers for breakfast, okay?”

Hope nods and disappears down the hallway, and Regina deflates.

“Are you okay?” Robin asks, coming toward her.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she breathes. “I just…thought we had a few more years before we had to have this conversation.” She looks at Robin, who is looking back at her with love and concern. “I wasn’t ready for it. Again.”

Taking her hand, he leads her to the bed and they sit down on its edge. With a pained sigh, she grimaces as Hope’s question echoes though her thoughts, reminding her so much of a ten year old Henry coming home from school and declaring that she wasn’t his ‘real mom’—that she wasn’t his mother at all. She was so caught off guard by it and she grappled to explain, struggling to find the right words, struggling to find words that would even make sense to him. But even when she tried, Henry wasn’t interested in listening, insisting that she’d been lying to him all his life and, to him, that was proof she didn’t really love him. Her heart shattered when she heard his bedroom door slam shut—shutting her out.

She remembers how she waited for him to come downstairs so that they could talk about it, the pieces of her broken heart fracturing even more as the minutes turned to hours. Finally, she’d gone upstairs and peeked into his room. Henry was asleep, but tear tracks were still moist on his cheeks. Gently, she tucked the blanket around him and leaned down to drop a kiss on his cheek, whispering her love to him. And then she saw it—tucked beneath his arm was storybook, opened to a page that bared her image—the Evil Queen in all her glory and her world came crashing down at her feet.

“I…didn’t handle this well with Henry,” she admits in a barely audible voice. “From that point on, everything just…unraveled.”

“Henry loves you.”

“I know,” she tells him. “But we went through a…really rough patch for awhile.” She pauses. “I can’t let that happen with Hope.”

“That’s not going to happen,” he tells her gently, as he gives her hand a soft, reassuring squeeze. “That girl adores you.”

“But so did Henry,” Regina replies, looking down at their entwined fingers. “I remember this one Mother’s Day, he came running into my room. The sun was barely up and he jumped into bed with me and he told me that he couldn’t wait any longer, that there was a surprise waiting for me downstairs.” Looking up, she sees that he’s smiling at the memory, and she smiles, too. “So, he took my hand and led me downstairs and he could barely contain himself. He was so excited ad so proud of himself. He’d made me breakfast—cereal—Lucky Charms, to be exact.” She laughs softly, “Which, three days before, he insisted that I buy, even though he’d never had them before…it was all set up on a tray—the cereal, and a card and a little vase with some flowers from my garden.” This time, it’s Robin who gently laughs. “The card had some flowers drawn on it and when I opened he’d written: If I got to pick my mother, I’d pick you. I’m so lucky to be your son.”

She pauses and exhales a shallow breath, “He didn’t know he was adopted at that point. But…he said he would have picked me. And at that moment, I honestly believed that nothing could ever tear us apart. Then three years later, he ran away…to find his real mom.” She smiles up at him with teary eyes. “I still have that card. It’s in my office and when I have a bad day that card can always brighten it.”

“Regina…”

“I know the situation is completely different.” She scoffs at herself. “I’m overreacting.”

“You’re entitled to your feelings.”

“And there’s a little girl downstairs who is entitled to hers.” She stands up, pulling him up with her. “The biggest mistake I made with Henry was that I was so afraid of losing him that I didn’t allow him his feelings. He had questions that I couldn’t answer, questions I wouldn’t answer…and it just made everything worse.” She shakes her head, “I won’t do that with Hope.”

Together they walk downstairs and into the kitchen and Robin leans against the counter, as Regina proceeds to the table. She stands there for a minutes, watching as Hope kicks her legs back and forth, happily eating her breakfast as her brothers clean up. Glancing back over her shoulder, she that all eyes are on her and part of her wishes she didn’t have an audience. She sees Robin offer a reassuring nod before she turns her eyes back to Hope.

“How’s that pancake?”

“Chocolatey,” Hope replies with a wide, satisfied grin.

“You asked me a question, and I didn’t give you an answer,” she begins gently, taking a deep breath and hoping she handles it better this time around. Hope looks up at her with soft, serious eyes, and Regina wonders how long Hope has wanted to ask that question. “You asked me if I’m your real mom, and the answer is yes. I am absolutely your real mom.”

She watches as Hope grins and suddenly, she feels her shoulders relaxing. “Sweetheart, I didn’t give birth to you. Zelena did; she’s your birthmother. But giving birth doesn’t make a person a mom.”

“It doesn’t?”

“No,” Regina tells her, shaking her head. “Being a mom is something you feel in your heart—it’s about love and it begins the very second you hold your baby and you realize that you would move heaven and earth to keep her safe; it’s when your heart swells with love as the first time she you’re able to soothe her back to sleep; it’s knowing what each of her little cry means…” She pauses and smiles softly. “It’s knowing that your little girl prefers her sandwiches cut diagonally, not straight across because she thinks they taste better that way; understanding that she loves cupcakes, but not cake, and hot dogs, but not bologna…and never questioning her reasoning; it’s about wrapping her in a warm towel after her bath and with cuddling her; it’s about kissing her scrapes and bruises and holding her hands as she twirls in a new dress…”

Regina watches as Hope’s eyes flicker with recognition, “You do those things with me!”

“I do,” she says with a nod, suddenly aware of the tears glistening in her own eyes. “You were such an unexpected, but wonderful gift and getting to be your mom has brought so much joy into my life. I love you so much, sweetheart.”

Hope smiles as she slides off her chair and wraps her arms around Regina’s side, “I love you, too, Mommy.” The tears in her eyes slip down her cheeks, as she folds her arm around the little girl—her little girl. She glances up to see that Robin, Henry and Roland are still watching with tentative, but smiling eyes. Robin offers her a small, reassuring smiles and a wink—she smiles back, grateful that he brought this little girl into her life.


End file.
